Christianity and Islam in Spain (756-1031) eBook

The number of misguided men and women that now came
forward and threw their lives away is certainly remarkable,
and seems to have struck the Moslems as perfectly
unaccountable. The Arabs themselves were as brave
men as the world has ever seen, and, by the very ordinances
of their faith, were bound to adventure their lives
for their religion in actual human conflict with infidel
foes, yet they were unable to conceive how any man
in his senses could willingly deprive himself of life
in such a way as could do no service to the cause,
religious or other, which he had at heart. They
were quite unable to appreciate that intense antagonism
towards the world and its perilous environment, which
Christianity teaches; that spirit of renouncement of
the vanities, nay, even of the duties of life, which
prompted men and women to immure themselves in cloisters
and retreats, far from all spheres of human usefulness.
Life under these circumstances had naturally little
to make it worth the living, and became all the more
easy to relinquish, when death, in itself a thing
to be desired, was further invested with the glories
of martyrdom.

The example of Isaac was therefore followed within
two days by a monk named Sanctius[1] or Sancho, who
was executed on June 5th. Three days later were
beheaded Peter, a priest of Ecija; Walabonsus, a deacon
of Ilipa; Sabinianus and Wistremundus, monks of St
Zoilus; Habentius, a monk of St Christopher’s
Church at Cordova; while Jeremiah,[2] uncle of Isaac,
was scourged to death. Their bodies were burned,
and the ashes cast into the river.

Sisenandus of Badajos[3] found a similar fate on July
16th: four days subsequently Paul, a deacon of
St Zoilus, gave himself up; and the same number of
days later, Theodomir, a monk of Carmona: all
of whom were beheaded.

[1] Eulog., “Mem.
Sanct.,” ii. c. 3.

[2] Ibid., c. iv.

[3] After his martyrdom he
procured the release from prison of
Tiberias, priest of Beja!
Eulog., “Mem. Sanct.,” ii. c. vi.

CHAPTER IV.

FANATICISM OF THE MARTYRS.

The next candidates for martyrdom were two young and
beautiful girls, whose history we learn from their
patron, Eulogius, who seems to have regarded one of
these maidens, Flora, with a Platonic love mingled
with a sort of religious devotion.

Flora,[1] the daughter of a Moslem father and a Christian
mother, was born at Cordova. She is said to have
practised abstinence even in her cradle. At first
she was brought up as a Moslem, and lived in conformity
with that faith, until, being converted to Christianity
about eight years before this time, and finding the
intolerance of her father and her brother unbearable,
she deserted her home. But when her brother, in
his efforts to discover and reclaim her, persecuted
many Christian families, whom he suspected of conniving
at her escape, she voluntarily surrendered herself